Einstein's genius may have been triggered by the left and right sides of his
brain being unusually well connected, research suggests.

When he was 26, Albert Einstein published four articles that contributed substantially to the foundation of modern physics and changed the world's views about space, time, mass and energy.

A study found the left and right hemispheres of Einstein's brain were unusually well connected to each other and may have contributed to his brilliance.

Lead author Weiwei Men, of East China Normal University's Department of Physics, developed a new technique to conduct the study, which is the first to detail the large bundle of fibres that connected the two cerebral hemispheres in Einstein's brain.

Men's technique measures where nerves cross from one side of the brain to the other, and their thicknesses. This shows how "connected" the two sides of the brain are in particular regions, which facilitate different functions depending on where the fibres cross. For example, movement of the hands is represented toward the front and mental arithmetic along the back.

With this new technique scientists were able to compare Einstein's measurements with those of two samples - one of 15 elderly men and one of 52 men Einstein's age in 1905.